7 Star Wars Outlaws Gaming Secrets I Wished I Knew Sooner

I’m wandering round a seedy bar, pondering over my life selections after a stranger simply known as me “determined, however cute.” That itself would not make it a singular expertise, besides that stranger was a Mon Calamari, one of many iconic fishy-looking aliens in a galaxy far, far-off. This is Star Wars Outlaws, the brand new Ubisoft online game that my colleagues demoed final week at Gamescom and I received an opportunity to play forward of its launch on Friday, Aug. 30.

In Outlaws, you play as Kay Vess, a younger heart-of-gold grifter, alongside along with her cuddly thieving companion, the scampering alien Nix. Star Wars canon-wise, the sport takes place throughout the Imperial Era, i.e., after Luke meets Yoda however earlier than the Ewoks make a Stormtrooper drum set. Early flashbacks reveal Kay spent her childhood operating small scams across the slums of Canto Bight along with her at present MIA mother Riko, who teaches her the all-important lesson of “You cannot all the time anticipate somebody to be there.” (Not ominous and indicative of a future-found household in any respect.) 

Down on her luck and out of a house after an unwitting run-in with some Rebels, Kay is on the hunt for what many a scoundrel needs: one final huge job. That means she’ll need to deal with 100 little missions and make half a dozen frenemies earlier than we get off-world. This is a have a look at the grimier facet of the Star Wars universe, however there’s nonetheless loads of journey and plenty of enjoyable characters to satisfy. 

The demos at Gamescom had been restricted to 3 brief midgame missions, however listed below are my ideas and some time-saving suggestions after about 22 hours of enjoying the sport on PlayStation 5.

Yes, Star Wars Outlaws is an open world sport

There are numerous hidden gems (literal and in any other case) within the open world of Star Wars Outlaws and the sport helps you to peruse them at your leisure. However, this freedom can typically make places laborious to search out if you do not have your cardinal instructions memorized. While urgent Up in your D-pad helps ping your goal and likewise prompts your “Nix sense” (which highlights interactive components round your setting), there are not any highlighted paths to observe for quests or targets. You need to depend on your map and the compass HUD to navigate to your required location. This could make issues tough should you get rotated simply in video games. There had been a number of missions the place I discovered myself biking tons of of meters within the flawed course till I consulted my map once more.

You also can end up in areas that aren’t but prepared for interplay. For instance, on Toshara — the second of 4 planets you may go to — there are a couple of treasures hidden behind objects that you just can’t destroy till you obtain upgrades later in the primary quest line. Just belief that if you do not have a capability, it is since you do not want it but. Keep following the story and you will get there.

You like minigames? You’re gonna get minigames

Lock-picking exams your rhythm whereas slicing (hacking) is like Wordle in house. Out on the earth, there are lots of Sabacc tables to win and lose credit at, together with sports activities betting. In-game arcade cupboards may be present in mechanic retailers and hidden alcoves. Within my fifth hour of enjoying, I even received an odd however charming meals minigame the place Kay and Nix eat house corn. Much like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the plethora of minigames provide you with a break from the motion and inform you a bit concerning the story, and most of them are elective.

No must control your speeder bike

Your speeder bike will not all the time present up in your map, however should you’re in an open space you may name it to your facet by holding proper on the D-pad. I did not notice this till after a handful of irritating stealth missions on foot within the grass plains of Toshara. I’d unmount to go shoot some bandits, solely to understand I’d utterly misplaced my bike someplace within the tall grass. Occasionally the map will allow you to fast-travel on to your bike, nevertheless it’s inconsistent. Again, I’m nonetheless solely on the second planet, so perhaps I’ll get to name a bantha sooner or later too.

You can pet the canine and a lot extra

Nix, Kay’s merqaal buddy — like if Disney’s Stitch was half axolotl — is accessible for cuddles 24/7, when he is not stealing issues and opening far-off doorways. You can provide many free-roaming critters an excellent scritch behind the ears as properly. Unless they’re naturally aggressive, during which case: run. You also can accumulate cute equipment for Nix, equivalent to a tiny Chewbacca-style bandolier.

You want loads of stealth irrespective of which facet you select

There are many crime factions in Outlaws, the primary gangs being Crimson Dawn, the Pyke Syndicate (the catfish guys from The Clone Wars, most lately seen in The Book of Boba Fett), and the infamous Hutt Cartel. As you may think about, when you can carry out jobs for a number of crime households, constructing affinity with one over one other could have its benefits and downsides. 

I selected to begin with Crimson Dawn (largely as a result of Han Solo’s ex-girlfriend Qi’Ra is talked about in a lore paragraph. Will we get to satisfy her? I hope so!) nevertheless it meant I needed to be additional stealthy every time I used to be in Pyke Syndicate territory. I needed to rely quite a bit on Nix’s distraction powers to steal a quest object from the Pykes. I may have stolen the half from the Crimson Dawn, however getting caught meant my popularity with them lowered every time. (And I received caught quite a bit.) This turns into a little bit simpler as the sport goes on and you may choose up extra missions from varied teams to construct your popularity, however early on it may be powerful.

Take benefit of the gameplay accessibility choices

While scripting this evaluate I attempted my finest to play on the Normal mode however went again to my common default of Story mode as I’m simply not nice at stealth missions. I did recognize that the sport has a high-contrast mode to make it simpler to search out interactive objects, though it was disappointing that in lots of non-cutscene interactions, Kay and the nonplayer characters had been blue creatures like the youngsters within the ’90s Capri-Sun commercials. I realized later you may toggle the opacity of those filters so it isn’t fairly as jarring.

High-contrast mode is value it to have the ability to discover usable footholds, because the physics of what Kay can and might’t climb is unnecessary. Furthermore, with so many choices for blaster settings, additional instruments and all of the actions Nix can carry out, having guides up is essential for remembering each final controller transfer.

Watch this: I Played the New Star Wars Outlaws Game at Gamescom

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Speaking of show choices, here is tips on how to flip off black bars in Star Wars Outlaws

One of the most effective options of Star Wars Outlaws is its beautiful artwork type and breathtaking vistas impressed by the unique trilogy. This is highlighted by the sport displaying in Cinematic Mode (21:9) by default, including black bars on the highest and backside of the display, plus a grainy movie filter to emulate that basic ’70s film look. If you wish to play in fullscreen mode, you may change this within the Display and Graphics menu within the settings. Just toggle Fill display within the Cinematic show mode choices. Don’t fear, should you nonetheless need that retro look, you may nonetheless preserve movie grain toggled on (or off, if you wish to see issues extra clearly).

Read extra: Change These Settings as Soon as You Start Star Wars Outlaws

That’s all for the guidelines as you stay up for enjoying the sport, which comes out in mere days. Although I’ve personally constructed a Lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop in Disneyland and have a cat named after the insurgent droid Chopper, that is my first time enjoying a Star Wars sport. I can not give a good comparability to video games like Jedi Survivor and even Knights of the Old Republic. In the grand scheme of “run round, punch folks and steal issues” video games, Outlaws jogs my memory most of Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Outer Worlds, however with a lot much less romance and fly fishing than the previous (up to now, anyway). There’s loads of exploration to do on and off-worlds, morally grey selections to make, fascinating bits of background dialogue to listen to, plenty of laser weapons and ship blasters to shoot, and sufficient Star Wars lore to excite even essentially the most scruffy-looking nerfherders.

Star Wars: Outlaws comes out for PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC on Friday, Aug. 30.